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Progressive Christian

2021-07-03T11:22:17-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Nationalism is Unpatriotic: An Independence Day Reflection

Last updated on: July 3, 2021 at 11:22 am By Vance Morgan

I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of Independence Day. I fully appreciate what it stands for, but do not appreciate the various ways in which we Americans tend to trivilize and commercialize the day, just as we manage to do with Christmas, Thanksgiving, and virtually every other holiday that supposedly stands for more than something than just a day off and/or spending a lot of money. I’ve always had an edgy relationship with over-the-top displays of... Read more

2021-06-30T15:15:38-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Modest Proposal, Part Two: Why My Time Should Not Be For Sale

Last updated on: June 30, 2021 at 3:15 pm By Vance Morgan

A week ago, I described a proposal concerning access to my services that I proposed to my students during a recent course. A Modest Proposal: Should My Time Be For Sale? We were studying Michael Sandel’s What Money Can’t Buy, an exploration of how in our contemporary world market economies are generating market societies, societies in which ideas and values that have traditionally been considered as outside or above being reduced to numbers and dollar signs are gradually being sucked... Read more

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Development of Western Civilization

Development of Western Civilization

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Providence College

teaching

2021-06-27T19:42:49-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How to Take Our Country Back

Last updated on: June 27, 2021 at 7:42 pm By Vance Morgan

As Independence Day approaches, there are many reasons to be hopeful. Things are continuing to open up and move toward the “normal” that we’ve spent the last year and a half pining for. Close to 70% of adults in this country have received at least one Covid-19 vaccination. The former guy is, thankfully, the former guy. Yet millions of Americans continue to believe the big lie, Republicans in Congress are uninterested in safeguarding the vote for all American citizens, white... Read more

2021-06-22T10:55:31-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

It’s Time to Get Back to Work

Last updated on: June 22, 2021 at 10:55 am By Vance Morgan

As we continue to move toward “normalcy” after close to a year-and-a-half of pandemic shut down of various forms, I hear more and more often in the news about the problem of people who prefer to remain on government help rather than return to work. I do not claim to be fully informed about this dynamic, but it is certainly telling that the states most often reporting these problems are also states in which the pre-pandemic minimum wage was at... Read more

2021-06-22T10:54:44-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Modest Proposal: Should My Time Be For Sale?

Last updated on: June 22, 2021 at 10:54 am By Vance Morgan

My next book project is a memoir about the teaching life. I started gathering materials for it two summers ago–thanks to 18 months of pandemic, I’m just returning to it now. I’m going to be occasionally trying things out here on the blog over the summer as I sort through three decades worth of material–probably every Thursday. I begin with one of the most effective and thought-provoking hoaxes I ever pulled on my students . . . In 1729, Jonathan... Read more

Development of Western Civilization

2021-06-19T16:38:56-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Truth Will Mess You Up

Last updated on: June 19, 2021 at 4:38 pm By Vance Morgan

I’ve always been afraid of people in possession of what they believe to be the truth. Donna Leon I love mysteries; a new-found favorite series is Donna Leon’s Guido Brunetti series set in Venice. There are close to thirty entries in the series to date–I’m currently finishing #12, but with some serious binge-reading this summer I will be caught up by the time school starts again at the end of August. Brunetti is not the brilliant mystery-solver that is standard fare... Read more

2021-06-19T16:35:34-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A Father’s Day Reflection: What My Dad Taught Me about Reading and Belief

Last updated on: June 19, 2021 at 4:35 pm By Vance Morgan

One of the most important things an author has to write when a book is in its late stages is the dedication. I have dedicated books to my mother, my sons, and to Jeanne, but my most recent book–Prayer for People Who Don’t Believe in God (Wood Lake, 2019)–is dedicated to my father. It makes sense, because in many ways this is my most controversial book so far, pushing the envelope of traditional thinking, belief, and practice concerning prayer as... Read more

2021-06-13T16:41:53-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Faith Is About Asking the “What If?” Questions

Last updated on: June 13, 2021 at 4:41 pm By Vance Morgan

In Lies We Believe Abut God, Wm. Paul Young (author of The Shack) tells the story of how one of his friends reacted to his speculation that we have the opportunity to choose God even after physical death (just one of many interesting non-orthodox ideas in this fascinating book). His friend’s viscerally negative response let Young know that he “had entered waters that were considered sacred. My intention made no difference. I had stepped on a land mine . . . [Later]... Read more

2021-06-15T06:54:11-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

What the Author Meant Does Not Matter

Last updated on: June 15, 2021 at 6:54 am By Vance Morgan

At the beginning of a seminar on the books of Exodus and Job from the Hebrew Scriptures with eleven honors freshmen not long ago, we had an interesting discussion about how to evaluate the stories we were (and would be) engaged with. I asked them how much difference the accuracy or inaccuracy the events portrayed made. Does the value of the stories rely on their being “true” in a factual sense? My students tentatively concluded that the value of the... Read more

2021-06-12T18:24:55-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

God Said It, I Believe It, That Settles It? Not so much.

Last updated on: June 12, 2021 at 6:24 pm By Vance Morgan

One of the books I gave Jeanne for her birthday this past week is As a Woman: What I Learned about Power, Sex, and the Patriarchy after I Transitioned, by Paula Stone Williams. As a father of three, married to a wonderful woman, and holding several prominent jobs within the Christian community, Williams made the life-changing decision to physically transition from male to female at the age of sixty. Almost instantly, her power and influence in the evangelical world disappeared and her... Read more

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